


Towels

by PaellaIsComplicated



Category: Glee
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-15
Updated: 2017-08-15
Packaged: 2018-12-15 21:47:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11814837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaellaIsComplicated/pseuds/PaellaIsComplicated
Summary: Takes place between seasons 5 and 6, before the breakup.





	Towels

**Author's Note:**

> I still can't quite wrap my head around the second Klaine breakup. It just doesn't make sense. So I guess I keep wrestling with it. 
> 
> It's long bugged me that Blaine seems to have this weird obsession with towels. First he buys towels for Kurt's graduation and then they break up because they argue about towels. It occurred to me suddenly that they might be related, and then this fic wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it.
> 
> So here's some angst for you.

Blaine was folding the laundry one day when he noticed that all the towels in the laundry were his. It’s not that he liked to think of things as “his” or “Kurt’s.” Of course he didn’t. They were getting married and they were living together and towels, of all things, were to be shared. Part of a life together. 

But given that the loft had been Kurt’s home first, it seemed weird that all the towels in the laundry that week had come from Blaine. His mom had dragged him to Bed Bath & Beyond before he moved to New York, and they’d had an argument--Blaine saying he wouldn’t even need towels because he was staying with Kurt and he knew Kurt had that beautiful set of monogrammed towels Blaine had given him for graduation. And his mom argued that they hadn’t even talked about living together permanently but anyway towels last forever if you don’t use them so he just let her buy him the towels thinking he and Kurt would need them someday.

Of course she’d been right and he’d moved into Mercedes’ place and the towels had come in handy. But now he was back and he realized that he hadn’t seen Kurt’s towels once the whole time he’d been living here. Which didn’t matter, of course. They were just towels. But it was weird. Blaine pushed the thought away and finished folding the laundry.

But something changed in his thinking after that. He couldn’t help seeing them as “his” towels now. And he sort of resented the absence of his graduation gift. Where were the monogrammed towels? Had Kurt thrown them away when they broke up? It was like the towels were a constant reminder of Blaine’s prior mistake, something Kurt was deliberately doing to keep holding Eli C. over Blaine’s head. Which is probably why he took it personally when he walked into the bathroom and saw Kurt hanging up a towel, a white smudge of toothpaste clearly visible.

“You’re just going to put the towel back like that?” Blaine snapped.

Kurt looked at Blaine, then looked at the towel. Being Kurt, he had folded the towel neatly before hanging it carefully on the towel rack. In fact, even though Kurt was in the middle of his nightly routine, not a thing in the bathroom was out of place. His toothbrush was back in the holder, the toothpaste tube replaced in the medicine cabinet. Next he would turn to his skin care regimen, removing each bottle from the cabinet one at a time but leaving nothing on the edge of the sink or on the windowsill, even while he was using it. Kurt returned his gaze to Blaine, raising an eyebrow.

“You expect me to use that towel like that? It’s covered in toothpaste!” Blaine knew he was being unreasonable. He could hear himself. But honestly, Kurt was taking his towels for granted and he just couldn’t stand it.

“I...wiped my face with the towel, Blaine,” Kurt began calmly. “Isn’t that what towels are for?”

“So you just expect me to use a towel that’s got your filth on it?” Blaine was raising his voice now.  
“I...guess?” Kurt was looking at Blaine carefully now, like he wasn’t sure what was happening. “I mean, jeez, Blaine, after the things we do together, I really didn’t think--”

“No, I guess you didn’t think,” Blaine retorted, turning on his heel and storming out of the bathroom.

Kurt turned back to the sink slowly, pondering what had just happened. He reached for his cleanser and began his skin care routine while he thought about things. Obviously, he was aware of the tension in the apartment. Something had been off for a while now. At first, when Rachel left for LA, everything had been amazing. It was all sex and cuddling on the couch and cooking together. But Blaine had been snippy for a while now, and if Kurt was honest, it was wearing on him.

It’s not like Kurt wasn’t used to arguing with housemates. He’d lived with Rachel and _Santana_ , for goodness’ sake. But he wasn’t used to arguing with Blaine. They’d always handled everything with the utmost maturity, talking things through when they disagreed. On the rare occasions they did fight badly, things would flame up, they’d walk away, and when they came back together, they were ready to sort things through. Even when they’d broken up that had happened, although it had taken months. 

But this low-level petty squabbling was different. Something was going on with Blaine, and Kurt couldn’t figure out what it was. He decided that appeasement was the best strategy and he grabbed the offending towel on his way out of the bathroom, tossing it in the laundry basket and walking to the trunk they used as a linen closet to get a clean one.

“Uh-huh,” Blaine said, suddenly, a scathing edge in his voice. “Another green towel. Of COURSE.”

“Yes, Blaine, I was going to replace the dirty green towel with a clean green towel that matches all the other towels in the bathroom,” Kurt snapped back. “I like the towels to match, Blaine. It’s not a crime. Just like using a towel to wipe toothpaste off my face is not a crime. It’s what towels are for!”

“Sure,” Blaine mumbled. “If it’s your towel.”

“What was that?” Kurt asked. “I didn’t hear you.”

“You’re acting like they’re your towels, Kurt!” Blaine shouted. “Like everything is YOURS because it’s YOUR LOFT.”

“I am not!” Kurt retorted. “What do you want me to do? Air dry? I used the towel that was in the bathroom. It’s not MINE, it’s just THERE!”

“And how did it get there, Kurt? Where did ‘our’ green towels come from?” Blaine used air quotes around the word “our” to emphasize the fact that they were his towels. 

“What are you even talking about?” Kurt screamed. “Do you want me to switch to the brown towels? Is that it?”

He didn’t get it. Blaine realized that they were having two completely different arguments here. Blaine was arguing about his place in Kurt’s life. About his contributions to this relationship being overlooked and taken for granted. About the fact that he still felt like a second-class fiance because he fooled around with another guy once back in high school. Kurt was arguing about--towels. 

“No, Kurt,” Blaine replied quietly. “The green towels are fine.” He took the towel out of Kurt’s hands and walked to the bathroom, closing the door firmly and locking it behind him. 

Kurt sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed. He’d clearly done something wrong, but he couldn’t figure out what it was. He hated that Blaine was hurting, he always hated when Blaine was hurting. But he didn’t know what to do about it. His dad had warned him, before the proposal. Marriage wasn’t easy--everyone knew that. And Kurt and Blaine had been together a long time already. They’d been through a lot. Bullying and Jeremiah and Chandler and Eli. Jealousy and competition and misunderstandings and negotiations. Being too far apart and being too close together. But those were real problems, not stupid little day to day things.

And they weren’t even married yet. They weren’t even old enough to _drink_ yet. 

Not for the first time, Kurt wondered what all the hurry was for. Blaine always wanted to push things to the next level. It was his instinct when things got rough. Kurt knew that. He’s always understood it, all the way back to the time Blaine got drunk and thought sloppy car sex would be the answer to their problems with Sebastian. Kurt could handle it, when he didn’t think it was the right thing. It wasn’t a major problem in their relationship or anything, it just was. And it wasn’t like it mattered this time. They were going to be together forever, so what difference did it make if they got married now or after college? Forever is forever, it doesn’t matter when you start counting. Kurt could give in on this, to make Blaine feel more secure.

Just, when they fought like this, Kurt wished he was wiser. It was all so stupid and there had to be a way to deal with it so they could just be happy. He thought back to the time they’d been apart and how much they’d fought to get back together. He loved Blaine so much, why wasn’t that enough?

The door opened and Blaine came out of the bathroom, looking soft and fragile in his sleeping clothes, damp curls making him look younger and more vulnerable than he did during the day. Kurt walked over to him and took his hands, looking him straight in the eye.

“I love you,” he said. “So much. You know that right?”

“Of course, Kurt,” Blaine answered. “I love you too. Always.”

They slipped inevitably into an embrace, holding each other as close as humanly possible, as if they could solve the problem if they could just squeeze into a small enough space together. They both savored the feeling of home, the smell of each other. When they eventually made their way to bed, they fell asleep tangled together, Blaine clinging to Kurt like his life depended on it. 

In the morning, Blaine resolved to do better. He’d keep choosing to trust Kurt with his heart, knowing there would be mistakes. He’d throw himself into wedding plans and stop over-analyzing everything. He’d stop keeping score and he’d learn to think of them as a unit. And everything would be okay. It would. It had to be.


End file.
